Manual of Classical Erotology (De figuris Veneris) — John Shaqi
Manual of Classical Erotology (De figuris Veneris)
General
Manual of Classical Erotology (De figuris Veneris)
Erotic literature; Sex customs -- Greece; Sex customs -- Rome
Her works were familiar to Timarchus in Lucian (_Apophras_, p.
158,—vol. VII., of Works of Lucian, edit. J. P. Schmid): “Tell me
where you find these words and expressions,—in what books? is it in
the volumes of Philaenis, that are always in your hands?”
Footnote 7:
Suetonius, _Tiberius_, ch. 43: “He decorated his various and variously
arranged sleeping-chambers with pictures and bas-reliefs of the most
licentious character, and furnished them with the works of Philaenis,
that no one in performing should want a model of the posture
required.”
_Priapeia_, III: “Taking pictures from the licentious treatises of
Elephantis, Lalagé presents them an offering to the stiff-standing
god, and begs you prove if she performs agreeably to the pictured
postures.”
It would seem then that artists depicted the postures described by
Elephantis, she herself possibly setting the example. Paintings of the
sort Lalagé dedicates to Priapus, and asks her lover to have her and
see if she is a docile pupil in faithfully imitating all the modes of
connection depicted in them. No doubt such representations of
licentious postures, taken from the works of Elephantis or Philaenis
or elsewhere stimulated the ingenuity of Artists to work out in
emulation these enticing _motifs_ to the highest degree of finish.
_Ovid_ alludes to such works of art in his _Art of Love_, II., 680:
“They unite in Love in a thousand postures; no picture could suggest
any fresh ones ...”; as also the author of an ancient Epigram quoted
by _Joseph Scaliger_ in his Commentary on the _Priapeia_, III.; “And
when she has thrown herself into every posture in imitation of the
seductive pictures, she may go: but let the picture be left hanging
over my bed.” Nothing was commoner with the Romans than to decorate
the wall and partitions of rooms with licentious paintings, as may be
gathered from Propertius II., vi, 27 sqq.: “The hand that first
painted filthy pictures, and exposed foul sights in an honest home,
corrupted the pure eyes of young maids, and chose to make them
accomplices of his own lubricity. In old days our walls were not
daubed with fancies of this vile sort, when never a partition was
adorned with a vicious subject.”
Footnote 8:
_Suidas_: “Paxamus wrote the _Dodecatechnon_; the subject is the
obscene postures.” But I think he has no good reason to connect with
this the epithet _Dodecamechanos_ given to a certain Cyrené. The said
wanton damsel seems to have practised rather than described the twelve
postures of Venus. _Suidas_ under _Dodecamechanon_: “There was a
famous _hetaera_, Cyrené by name, further known as _Dodecamechanos_,
because she practised twelve different postures in making love.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account